LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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ADDRESS 



AND 



CORRESPONDENCE 



DEMOCRATIC 

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OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

B. FRANKLIN JACKSON, PRINTER, 



MERCHANT STREET. 



33 



'oS" 



J^S~ 



ADDEESS 



OF THE 



Icmocratic State Committee. 



To the Citizens of Pennsylvania : 

It has been usual for the State Committee, representing the 
Democratic party of Pennsylvania, to address the people of the 
State pending important elections. In conformity with this 
usage, which may be regarded as settled and salutary, we 
submit the following address : 

The Democratic State Convention, upon the second day of 
March last, and at its re-assembling in June, made nominations 
for the offices of Governor, Canal Commissioner and Judge of 
the Supreme Court. 

For Governor, Gen. Packer, of Lycoming was named, after 
a spirited contest, and his nomination was then unanimously and 
rightfully confirmed. He has been long well known throughout 
the State, has filled a number of responsible and important 
positions in the State government, and has established a public 
character which strongly recommends him to popular confidence. 
We conceive it to be a material qualification for this high office, 
that the incumbent shall be well acquainted with the practical 
workings of the government — with the course and character of 
legislation — the details of business in the several executive 
departments — and with the public men of the Commonwealth, 
who have filled, or may fill, the various positions created by the 
Constitution and laws. The contrast, in this respect, between 
our candidate and the candidates of the opposition, is too 
strongly marked to escape general notice, and it is but necessa- 
ry to allude to it to show the vantage ground held by our party 



in the present contest. It may be asserted that the Convention 
have named " the right man for the right place," and that their 
nomination deserves popular endorsement, if regard is had to 
qualifications and experience. 

It is agreeable to add, that our candidate has a solid and 
reputable character in private life, and that his estimable 
qualities have endeared him to a large circle of friends who can 
enter upon his support with feelings of enthusiasm as well as 
with convictions of duty. 

We do not desire to draw strongly the contrast which it is 
possible to draw, between our candidate and his leading 
opponent. Judge Wilmot has had a career as a public man 
which has given him notoriety without inspiring confidence. — 
Imperfectly acquainted with the practical action of the State 
government; without experience in its legislative or executive 
departments ; with but a limited knowledge of public men and 
State affairs beyond his immediate locality — he is presented upon 
a comparatively remote national issue, and as the candidate of 
a bitter sectional party which received a merited defeat at the 
recent Presidential election. It is not believed that his career 
in Congress exhibited any high capacity to promote the interests 
of the people of Pennsylvania, and it is certain that his recent 
course in the office he now holds, has been calculated to lower 
the judicial character by connecting it with extreme and violent 
partisan disputes. 

Nimrod Strickland, of Chester county, was named by the 
Convention for Canal Commissioner. He needs no recommen- 
dation at our hands, for his integrity, firmness and capacity are 
not disputed and are widely recognized. It will be a pleasure 
for those who belong to our party, and for all who desire to 
consult fitness and merit in bestowing their suffrages, to give 
him their cordial support. 

By reasoit of the declination by Chief Justice Lewis, of the 
re-nomination tendered him by the Convention, and the calling 
of Judge Black to the post of Attorney General in the National 
Administration, the Convention, upon its re-assembling in June, 
found the duty devolved upon it of naming two candidates for 
the Supreme Bench. Wm. Strong of Berks county, a distin- 
guished member of the bar, and formerly a member of Congress, 
and James Thompson of Erie, also a former member of Con- 
gress, once a President Judge of the Common Pleas, an ex- 
Meinber of the Legislature, and a profound and successful 
lawyer, were selected by the Convention. Their locations are 
suitable, giving both to the East and West a representation upon 
the ticket, and their learning and integrity well qualify them to 
discharge the arduous and responsible duties of the highest 
judicial position under our Constitution. 



3^AC 



Such is the ticket formed by the delegates representing the 
Democratic party, and support of it is confidently asked in view 
of the character of the nominations. But confidence and 
support are also invited upon the general grounds of policy and 
principle upon which our party stand. Ours is no new, untried, 
vindictive, sectional or suspicious organization. It has been 
tried ; it is bold and open in conduct ; it is magnanimous, 
patriotic and national. Founded more than half a century ago 
by the author of the Declaration of Independence, it has had a 
distinguished history, has ordinarily given direction to the 
administration of public affairs, and planting itself early, and 
throughout its whole career, upon a strict construction of the 
Constitution, and a sparing use of the powers of Government, 
has preserved our American system from degeneracy and 
failure. 

The usefulness of organized parties is sometimes denied, and 
oftener doubted: — But in view of historical facts it cannot well 
be questioned that they are incident to free governments, and 
arise of necessity under their operation. An inquiry, however, 
into the nature of political parties and the causes which produce 
them, can scarcely be expected to constitute the subject of a 
fugitive address It will be sufficient for present purposes to 
assert the necessity of our party to check the evil and dangerous 
influences to which our political system is liable, and against 
which it is impossible that written constitutions can sufficiently 
guard. Doubtless our constitutions exhibit the wisdom of those 
who framed them, and the amendments to which they have 
been subjected have rendered them more complete and perfect 
than they were at first. But a constitution can only be an out- 
line for the action of government, (besides providing for its 
establishment,) and by construction it may be made to mean 
almost anything the political authorities for the time being may 
choose. It is a chart given to direct the vessel of state which 
can have little effect upon the voyage unless those in command 
choose to faithfully interpret and observe its counsel. A party 
organization, therefore, founded upon right principles of consti- 
tutional construction and powerfully and constantly influencing 
official action, may be regarded as necessary. It is, in short, 
absolutely required to give a just and consistant direction to 
government, both in cases dependent upon construction of the 
constitution and in cases where the constitution is silent. Be- 
sides the instability of political action in republics is a reproach 
to which they have been often subjected, and is the objection 
to them which has had greatest weight with profound and inde- 
pendent thinkers both in the old world and the new. But this 
instability, which arises principally from individual ambition, the 
selfishness of classes, and the fluctuations of opinion, is to a 



great extent checked and prevented by the predominance of a 
party founded upon clear and sound principles of public policy, 
and acting constantly with reference to them. 

Now, the Democratic partly is simply the representative of a 
school of opinion, and its creed is given it by those who founded 
and have subsequently supported it. The great men who have 
spoken and acted for it, and whose names will remain promi- 
nent upon the history of the country, have been men of strong, 
clear and sound views of our system of government, and of the 
rules upon which its administration should proceed. Our party 
is the product of their efforts ; the instrument for accomplishing 
the ends they proposed, and it remains a monument of their 
sagacity, foresight and patriotism. 

They held that over-action in government was a great evil — 
the most difficult to be guarded against, and therefore the most 
dangerous — and that both within and without the Constitution 
powerful guards against it were required. Proverbial language 
conveys the idea in declaring that " the world is governed too 
much," and that " that government is best which governs least;" 
and philosophical reasoning attains the same result, in conclu- 
ding, that government being the creature of necessity, is limited, 
by the necessities which create it, and is not to be extended 
beyond them. The Democratic party has therefore held, and 
holds, that Constitutions shall receive a strict construction ; that 
government shall exercise no powers not clearly delegated to it, 
and that in cases of doubt as to the policy of a particular mea- 
sure, the conclusion shall be against it. In short, that public 
power shall not be exerted, excepi where a clear warrant and 
manifest utility authorize and justify it. 

The powerful (and we think salutary) operation of this doc- 
trine appears throughout the history of the National and State 
governments, and the occasional departures from it stand as 
beacons to warn, and not as examples to follow. 

To illustrate our remarks, we will refer briefly to a number 
of measures of public policy heretofore proposed to the general 
or slate Governments, upon which divisions of opinion have 
existed among public men and parties. They will afford data 
for judging the value of the Democratic doctrine on the subject 
of Governmenl powers and policy, of which we have spoken. 

First — A Bank, created by tin General Government, owned 
in pari by it, and intended for the regulation of the currency, 
ami to afford facilities to commerce and business. This mea- 
sure was resisted, and all recent attempts to re-establish such 

an institution have been put down, upon the very ground above 

staled. 

Second -Internal Improvements, to be constru ted at the 
charge of the national treasury, to facilitate interna] trade and 



3qt~y 



assist in developing the material resources of particular sections. 
No clear authority for outlays of this description appearing, 
and the manifest dangers to which they lead being apparent, 
the action of the Federal Government on this subject has been 
rightfully and wisely arrested. 

Third — Excessive duties upon imports, to the extent of pro- 
hibition upon their importation, or to the production of revenue 
beyond the legitimate wants of government. The federal power 
of imposing duties being for the expressed object of Govern- 
ment support and the liquidation of public indebtedness, its ex- 
ercise for an entirely different object would seem unwarranted, 
and would be unjust to interests or individuals against whom a 
discrimination is thus produced. Therefore it is, that against 
much misconception and the opposition of powerful interests, 
the doctrine of limited and reasonable duties has been sternly, 
and upon the whole, successfully upheld. 

Fourth — The distribution of moneys from the national trea- 
sury among the States, believed to be equally unwarranted with 
the preceding measures, and inevitably tending to the produc- 
tion of speculation and extravagance in the States, has also 
been resisted, and except upon a single occasion, prevented. 

Fifth — A bankrupt act, dissolving the relation of debtor and 
creditor in a manner and to an extent unauthorized by the Con- 
stitution, disastrous to private rights, injurious to morals, and 
to the encouragement, mainly, of one of the least meritorious 
classes of society — the speculator and spendthrift. With hot 
haste and under the lash of public opinion, the very authors of 
such an act in 1842 were coerced into its repeal. 

Sixth — Appropriations of public money or lands, to objects 
of doubtful constitutionality or utility ; connected with which, 
may be mentioned the allowance of claims, insufficiently estab- 
lished or unjust. The Democratic principle strikes as decisively 
at all projects for assailing the treasury, for an individual, a 
class, or a section, in the absence of clear right to justify the 
demand, as it does at other unwarranted or doubtful measures. 

Seventh — The exercise of jurisdiction by the General Govern- 
ment over slavery in the territories, to the exclusion of local 
decision thereon. Legislation by Congress upon slavery beyond 
the express requirement as to return of fugitives, is to be doubted, 
and if regard is had to high judicial opinion, expressly denied, 
as a valid exercise of power. And its inexpediency is most 
plainly manifest, in view of the dangerous disputes which such 
action inevitably produces. Most clearly, therefore, is it to be 
deprecated and opposed, upon the general doctrine of non action 
by government in doubtful cases. 

Eighth — The establishment of corporations, either excessive 
as to number, or vested with inordinate powers and privileges ; 



8 

and especially for pursuits or business within the reach of indi- 
vidual means and skill. Under which head is to be particularly 
noted, the chartering of banks beyond the business wants of the 
community, locating them at points without adequate commerce 
or exchanges to alford legitimate occupation, and failing to 
impose upon them such guards against abuse and fraud as are 
demanded by experience. The recent resolution on this subject 
by our State Convention, but indicates the well considered posi- 
tion of our party on this subject and its policy for the future. 

Ninth — The authorizingof municipal subscriptions to rail-roads 
and other corporate bodies, to the encouragement of speculation, 
corruption and the accumulation of public debts. The proposi- 
tion now before the people for the amendment of the Constitution 
to prevent this in future, is but in affirmance of the principle we 
have been considering ; for the decision of a divided Court in 
favor of legislative power to authorize such subscriptions has not 
removed all doubts, and has left the powerful objections to the 
system upon grounds of expediency, untouched and irresistible. 

Tenth — The sale or surrender by Government, in whole or 
in part, of any of its constitutional powers confided to it by the 
people. The attempt to do this in the late act for the sale of 
the Main Line of the Public Works ; an attempt which was 
denounced by the State Convention, and has since been 
pronounced unconstitutional by the Supreme Court ; may be 
cited under this head, and deserved that reprobation which it 
has generally received. 

Eleventh — Sumptuary laws, by which dress, food, drink, 
equipage, or other like concern of use, habit or fashion, is 
coerced. The interference of law in such cases would seem to 
be unuseful, and is of doubtful authority. 

Twelfth — Finally, measures directed against a class or sect 
and intended to degrade them or limit their civil privileges. — 
It is affirmed that neither religious belief nor birth-place will 
furnish grounds for ostracism or a denial of common right. 

Such are some of the leading measures upon which political 
divisions have taken place, and on their careful examination it 
will be seen that they can all be resolved into the general 
question whether the powers and action of government shall be 
extensive or limited. And if we should pursue the subject 
further, this view of the fundamental ground of dilference 
between public men and parties would be but confirmed and 
strengthened. 

We are left then to choose sides in the struggle between 
power and liberty — between a government that meddles and one 
that abstains — between political New Englandism and the Vir- 
ginia doctrines of 1798. Neutrality is not possible, for almost 
every public question that arises compels us to a choice between 



^y 



contending parties, and the schools of opinion which they 
respectively represent. 

It has been fashionable for apostates from our party to claim 
that they retained their principles unchanged, and even oppos- 
ing parties occasionally advance pretensions to the faith and 
doctrines of Jefferson. How unfounded such pretensions are, 
whether advanced by apostate or party, will appear from con- 
sidering the measures of public policy they propose and support. 
If we lind them favoring new projects of doubtful right or expe- 
diency, contending for extensive jurisdiction to government, and 
scoffing at constitutional scruples as " abstractions," we may be 
sure they are no disciples of the philanthropist, philosopher and 
statesman who founded our party, and who wrote to Edward 
Livingston as late as 1824, to endorse the sentiment, that " if 
we have a doubt relative to any power, we ought not to exer- 
cise it." Much more may we deny their discipleship, if we find 
their measures connected with intolerance in religion, proscrip- 
tion of adopted citizens, or aggressions upon territorial or state 
rights ; which is manifestly a true description, at this moment, 
of the parties opposed to us. 

The (so-called) Republican party makes high pretensions 
and challenges their examination; but there can be little diffi- 
culty in determining their character and value, and assigning 
the party which holds them its true position before the public. — 
Especially will it be a work of ease, to explode its pretension to 
sound opinions as held by former Republican Presidents, and to 
bring it within the condemnation which they directed against 
the heretical movements of the times in which they lived. 

The resistance made about 1820, to the admission of Mis- 
souri into the Union, was similar to the recent conduct of those 
who misdescribe themselves as Republicans. In both cases the 
proposition was, that Congress should prohibit slavery in territo- 
ries (or cause it to be prohibited) prior to their admission as 
States. The argument against this was stated by Mr. Madi- 
son, in the Walsh letter, under all the high sanctions which his 
abilities and his position as the leading author of the Constitu- 
tion, could confer upon it. And it is as well established as any 
historical fact can be, that Mr. Jefferson was opposed to the 
Missouri agitation throughout, and to prohibitions of slavery 
by Congressional coercion as then proposed. His celebrated 
letter to John Holmes, dated 22d April, 1820, furnishes conclu- 
sive proof of this, and confirmation of the fact will be found in 
other parts of his published correspondence. In his letter to 
John Adams of December 10, 1819, he says: that, "from the 
battle of Bunker Hill to the treaty of Paris, we never had so 
ominous a question ; it even damps the joy with which I hear of 
your high health and welcomes to me the consequences of my 



10 

want of it. I thank God, I shall not live to witness its issue. 1 ' 
In a letter to the same, January 22d, 1S21, he says — "what 
does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress intend to do with 
us on the Missouri question? And this, by the way, is but the 
name of the case: it is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the 
ejectment. The real question, as seen in the States afflicted 
with this unfortunate population, is, ' are our slaves to be pre- 
sented with freedom and a dagger?' " He says to Mr. Monroe, 
March 3, 1820 — " the Missouri Question is the most porten- 
tious one which ever yet threatened our Union. In the gloom- 
iest moment of the Revolutionary war, I never had any appre- 
hension equal to that which I felt from this source." To Mr. 
Short, April 13, 1820 — he writes— "Although I had laid down 
as law to myself never to write, talk, or even think ot politics ; 
to know nothing of public affairs ; and had, therefore, ceased to 
read newspapers ; yet the Missouri question aroused and filled 
me with alarm. The old seism of Federal and Republican 
threatened nothing because it existed in every State, and united 
them together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence 
of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geooraphical 
line, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated 
from the mind ; that it would be recurring on every occasion, 
and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and 
mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to eternal dis- 
cord." He sa)S to Joseph C. Cabell, January 31, 1821 — 
" How many of our youths, she (Harvard College) now has 
learning the lessons of Jlnti-Missouriunism, I know not ; 
lml a gentleman lately from Princeton told me he saw there the 
list of the students at that place, and that more than half were 
Virginians. These will return home no doubt deeply im- 
pressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Jl Ilia nee of 
Restrictionists /" And to Gen. Breckinridge he writes, 
February 15, 1821 : "The line of division lately marked out 
between different portions of our confederacy is such as will 
never, I fear, be obliterated; and we are now trusting to those 
who are against us in position and principle, to fashion to 
their own form the minds and affections of our youth. If, as 
has been estimated, we send three hundred thousand dollars a 
year to the northern seminaries for the instruction of our own 
sons, then we must have there five hundred of our sons imbib- 
ing opinions anil principles in discord with those of their 
own country. This canker is eating Oil the \it;ils of OUT ex- 
istence, and, if not arrested at once, will he beyond remedy." 
In a letter to Mr. Madison, in reference to the Missouri 
question, he declared thai Rufus King (a distinguished federal- 
ist) was " ready to risk the Union for any chance of restor- 
ing tiis jnirtij to power, and wriggling himself to the head 



11 



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Ktf if. M On anolher occasion, he declared the question to be a 
*rtere party trick, " that the leaders of federalism defeated in 
their schemes of obtaining power * * have changed their tact 
and thrown out another barrel to the whale. They are taking ad- 
vantage of the virtuous feeling of the people against slavery to ef- 
fect a division of parties by a geographical line, expecting 
that this will insure them, upon local principles, the ma- 
jority they could never obtain on principles of federalism." 
And, finally, his letter to Gen. La Fayette, dated November 4, 
1823, contains his judgment of the whole movement, expressed 
with his usual directness and vigor. He says — " The Hartford 
Convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of Ghent, pros- 
trated the name of federalism. Its votaries abandoned it 
through shame and mortification, and now call themselves 
republicans. But the name alone is changed, the principles 
are the same." * * u On the eclipse of federalism with us, 
though not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri 
question, under the false front of lessening the measure of 
slavery, but with the real view of producing a geo- 
graphical DIVISION OF PARTIES, WHICH MIGHT INSURE THEM THE 

next president. The people of the North Went blindfold 
into the snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal 
truly moral and laudable, until they became sensible that they 
were injuring instead of aiding the real interests of the 
slaves, that they had been used merely as tools for 

KLEC TIONEERING PURPOSES ; AND THAT TRICK OF HYPOCRISY then 

fell as quickly as it had been got up." 

This is an admirable description of the Republican party of the 
present day — of the causes which led to it, and the objects of 
its founders. The picture is drawn by the hand of a master, and 
represents the features of the subject with fidelity and exactness. 
Republicanism, being but a reproduction of Missouri agitation, 
bears precisely the same description, and is obnoxious to pre- 
cisely the same censure. — And it is to be remarked, that like 
its predecessor, it invokes the legislation of Congress in a case 
of rank inexpediency and doubtful power, and hence falls within 
the condemnation of the general principle as to limited action 
by Government, which has been a topic of this address. 

But a view of modern Republicanism would be incomplete 
without some particular notice of the features of its career. 
Without tracing its early movements in the organization of 
Abolition societies, the circulation of incendiary matter through 
the mails, agitation by petitions to Congress, clamorous oppo- 
sition to the annexation of Texas, to the prosecution of the 
Mexican war and the acquisition of territory to which it led, it 
will be sufficient to notice somewhat the Wilmot Proviso which 



now 



12 

preceded, and the Kansas dispute which accompanied, the 
organization of the Republican party in its present form. 

The Wilmot Proviso was offered in Congress in 1846, as an 
amendment to a war bill, and was (briefly described] a proposi- 
tion to prohibit slavery in Mexican territory- to be acquired. It 
created contention which continued some four years. The 
national harmony was disturbed and the public business impe- 
ded by it, until it became necessary for patriotic men, in Con- 
gress and out of it, to unite their utmost efforts to restore peace 
and secure such legislation as was absolutely necessary for the 
territory in question. The Compromise Measures were therefore 
passed in 1850, and eventually received the general approval of 
the people. In fact, in 1852, both the great parties of the 
country endorsed them in their platforms, and their wisdom and 
propriety are not now a subject of general dispute. 

The Territory we acquired from Mexico by the treaty of peace 
the treaty of Gaudaloupe Hidalgo — comprised nearly the whole 
w included in the State of California and the Territories of 
Utah and New Mexico ; and the Proviso, if it had been adop- 
ted, would therefore have had application solely to them. But 
was never adopted or applied by Congress to either. California 
was admitted into the union as a State with the Constitution she 
formed for herself, without any decision by Congress on the 
subject of slavery within her 'limits. That was adjusted by 
herself in her Constitution, and by her own act therefore she 
entered the Union as a free State. In the acts for the organi- 
zation of Utah and New Mexico as Territories, there were no 
provisions prohibiting or authorizing slavery, but it was ex- 
pressly provided that they should eventually come into the 
Union with or without slavery, as the people of each should de- 
cide in forming Constitutions* preparatory to admission. Seven 
years have elapsed since these Territorial acts were passed, and 
no complaint is heard against them, nor has slavery been estab- 
lished in either Territory. It is therefore proved 'that the Wil- 
mot Proviso was wholly unnecessary to the exclusion of slavery, 
and that the agitation from 1846 to 1850 to secure its enact- 
ment, was a thing of arrant folly as- well as of real evil. 

I here stand the facts ! no longer to be perverted or denied, 
and they exhibit the Proviso agitation in its true character. — 
Not adopted, it is seen to have been unnecessary. Productive 
of great mischief to the country in the contention and alienation 
it caused, it was a mere abstraction, a thing neither practical 
nor useful. 

A desperate attempt was made last year to carry the Presi- 
dential election upon a Kansas agitation, in which the same 
'lass of actors appeared that did in the Missouri agitation of 1820 
—men " ready to risk the Union for any chance" of establish- 



3r> 



13 



ing their party, " and wriggling themselves to the head of it." 
But, a just judgment was pronounced upon these people and 
their project in the election of Mr. Buchanan, and they will 
soon be obliged to select some other topic upon which to dis- 
turb the public tranquility, and struggle for the attainment of 
power. Their spasmodic attempts to keep up excitement with- 
out any practical or useful object in view, but simply that they 
may thrive upon discord and passion, are even now received by 
the public with a feeling bordering very nearly upon contempt. 

The American people are practical and sagacious They 
will require some practical good to appear in any movement to 
which they are invited ; and when due time has elapsed for re- 
flection, they will try parties and party measures by the standard 
of principle and not of professions. 

The Wihnot proviso was utterly extinguished by Webster on 
the 7th of March 1850, in the demonstration of its inutility, and 
was thenceforth delivered over to history as an imposture ; and 
approval of the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854, has been growing 
more and more general as its conformity to sound principles has 
been examined and established. That unnecessary things shall 
not be done, and that the citizens of each political division of 
the country shall determine their local institutions, are, in fact, 
propositions so reasonable and just that it is surprising tlrey 
should ever have been questioned. 

Three years ago the Democratic party of this State chose 
defeat before dishonor. It stood up for toleration and equal 
rights, against the passions and prejudices of the time, because 
constitutional and just principles demanded it. And now, with a 
new antagonist — the Republican party — it still stands in the 
path of duty, with its past course vindicated, and with the high- 
est claims to public confidence and favor. While it is not in- 
sensible to ideas of progress and improvement, and will seek to 
apply those that are practical and just, its duty as a great con- 
servative organization, to preserve the principles of the govern- 
ment and the institutions of the country from degeneracy, will 
not be neglected. In brief, if trusted it will be true, and from its 
administration of public affairs, the people will receive, as here- 
tofore, the "peaceable fruits" of good government and honest 
rule. 

C. R. BUCKALEW, Chairman. 
Jno N Hutchinson, j Seereiaries . 
li. J. Haldeman, ) 



l ib«*!° fC0MGRE?S - 



LETTES 

MIL JEFFERSON TO . 

milllHUlUHWl 




f RTSb 329 4 



MoxriCELLOi April 22, 1820. 
I thank you, dear sir, fur the copy you have been so kind as to send 
hie of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is a 
perfect justification to them. I had fur a long time ceased to read news- 
papers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident that they were in 
good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from 
Which 1 am not far distant. But this momentous question, like a fire 
bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it 
at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment; 
But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, 
coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived 
and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated ; 
and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. I can say, with 
conscious truth, that there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice 
more than I would to relieve us from this heavy reproach, in any practi- 
cable way. The cession of that kind of property (for so it is misnamed) 
is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, 
a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected ; and gradually* 
and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, we have the 
wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. — 
Justice is in one scale, and self preservation in the other. Of one thing 
I am certain, that as the passage of slaves from one state to another 
Would not make a slave of a single human being who would not be so 
without it, so their diffusion over a greater surface Would make them in- 
dividually happier, and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of 
their emancipation, by dividing the burthen on a greater number of coad- 
jutors. An abstinence too, from this act of power, would remove the 
jealousy excited by the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition 
of the different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is 
the exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the Constitution has 
taken from them and given to the general government. Could Congress, 
for example, say that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen, 
er that they shall not emigrate into any other State? 

I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of 
themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and 
happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and un- 
worthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be, that 
1 live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the 
blessings they will throw away against an abstract principle more likely 
to lie effected by union than by scission, they would pause before they 
would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason against 
tic hopes of tho world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of the 
I Dion, I tender tho offering of my high esteem aud respect. 

THOS. JEFFERSON. 



